s/v Code Blue – Niue a Country and a Small Island

Oceanview – From south end of Niue

Niue a Country and a Small Island 10-1-14

We left Palmerston 9-23 with 11491 trip miles, starting at 11:51am if
we use Niue time, Eng Hrs 3142.5. Sailed 412 miles, motored for 1
mile to another mooring in Niue at 2:29pm on 9-26 for 413 miles total,
11904 total trip, Engine hours 3143.0 now. Noon to noon was 143
miles on one day, 138 on another, and 128 from another that was 1pm to
1pm. So Code Blue did fairly good mileage for this boat which is
lucky to do 6 miles per hour on average for 24 hours. There were lots
of 15 to 25 kt winds with some 10 to 20 for the most part. Winds were
on an apparent beam reach for some time but then clocked behind us so
we couldn’t hold course at times and needed to gybe a few times.
Mostly we just had our genoa up and used our windvane, Heidi, to
steer.

Landed in Niue on Friday 26th, joined Jack and Jan from Anthem at
Gill’s Restaurant, an Indian place. Saturday morning early, 6am to
noon, is the high school food fest, Alofi North Annual Show Day.
Alofi is the village center here on the island. They also did some
cultural dances. Coconut Crabs were at the High School show about 10
of them for sale at $100 each for the bigger ones that were about 18
inches across, leg tip to leg tip.
Afterwards we rented a car for two days with Tracy and Michelle of
Ingrid Princess. We found out Matavai Resort has an island Night
Buffet on Saturdays after stopping by to dip in their pool and have a
drink, but we had already cleaned up using the showers at the snorkel
site earlier, near Washaway Café that is only open Sundays. We
stopped at the bond store for $4 off 24 pack of beer duty free and
later picked up some duty free rum. Duty free here is said to be the
cheapest in the Pacific, but note, still $40 a case of 24. They allow
you to pick up duty free when you arrive and when you leave. The show
for Island Night was pretty good for free, local dancers mostly on the
young side but then we’re old. Males were more of a warrior
presentation. Sunday we spent the whole day driving around the
island and checking out the various pools, caves, chasms, overlooks
and such. Next since it was Sunday, we had cheeseburger and chips at
Washaway Café, south of town. Then we went for a snorkel at Limu
Pool, north of town. It has a 15’ underwater tunnel to another pool.
There was lots of cool fresh water on top of the salt water. Very
nice toilets, with TP and sometimes showers at all the places we
checked. Niue T shirt phrase that Tracy saw, “Be Somebody, Live in
Niue”. As of June 2014 there were 1,586 residents on the island about
12 miles long and 8 miles wide. Monday we checked out one more cave
area close to town then returned the car by noon. Niue Yacht Club
maintains the moorings for our sailboats, provides solar showers with
restrooms near the launch, free WiFi at the club house but very, very
slow like the rest of the island, and book exchange.

We returned to the boat as it was Michelle’s birthday and we invited
them over for dinner. Judy fixed up chicken curry and I made apples
flambé for desert with rum. The next day Michelle left to go back
home, while Tracy is picking up a crew buddy in Tonga and left the
island. I got up at 5am for the “Early Tuesday Market. I was looking
for bananas but none came, too green still said the local banana guy,
when he arrived at 8:15am. The lady that brings in limes came in at
4am, sold out and left at 4:15am I was told. I didn’t get there until
about 6:20am. I did get a papaya. After getting back to the boat, I
did a boat dive, very clear water with visibility of over 100 feet.
There were quite a few Fire Dartfish in the area and I saw one sea
snake but didn’t get a picture. Some dives have lots of them to see,
like “Snake Chasm”.

Wednesday the 1st was laundry day, started about 10:30am. We went up
to the Niue YC restrooms near the harbor, and they have large sinks
plus we had 5 gal. buckets to wash our clothes, and we took showers
with the solar heater they have. We took them to the boat and put the
clothes on the lifelines and shrouds. We had lunch and the clothes
were dry. We’ll have dinner ashore here somewhere. Friday early,
early we’ll leave for Vavau, Tonga. They are having talks about New
Zealand boat support on Monday and Tuesday night. It’s about 250
miles so we should make it with the good winds expected. Provisions
in Tonga are not good, so we’ve been warned to stock up as much as we
can in Niue.

 

Fair winds,
Steve and Judy
s/v Code Blue

 

Oceanview – From south end of Niue

Coconut Crab – $100 each for the bigger ones, about 18 inches across, leg tip to leg tip.

Fire Dartfish – Dive near our sailboat

Dingy Lift – You pull your dinghy or medium boat out of the water by crane

Arch – Talava Arches near north end of island

Niue YC – Biggest little Yacht Club, they maintain the moorings for our sailboats & free WiFi

Cave2 – Palaha Cave

Cave1 – Avaiki Cave system

Warrior – Male dancers at Island Buffet Night

Toilet – Fancy toilets with TP and showers too – very unusual to have such nice toilets in the South Pacific

Snorkel – Lumi Pools, Good snorkel area

Washaway Café – only open Sundays

– S / J –